Method for efficient encoding and decoding quantized sequence in Wyner-Ziv coding of video

ABSTRACT

A computer-based method for encoding and decoding quantized sequences in Wyner-Ziv coding of video, bi-partite graph is used in an iterative process. The method takes as input to an encoder a sequence of quantized data from a finite alphabet, the sequence comprising a video frame. Another sequence of data, decoded from the prior video frame, is input to a decoder. A statistical model describing the statistical relationship between the quantized input sequence to the encoder and the input sequence to the decoder is input to both the encoder and the decoder. A minimum field size is estimated from the statistical model at the encoder and the decoder separately.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. Ser. No. 11/458,473 filed on Jul. 19, 2006 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,005,141, the complete contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to methods and apparatuses for video compression. More specifically, the present invention describes a method for efficient encoding and encoding quantized sequences in video compression systems based on the principle of coding with side information available only at the decoder, hereafter referred to as Wyner-Ziv video coding systems.

2. Background Description

Conventional video compression systems, as standardized by MPEG, rely on a complex, sophisticated encoder that exploits the statistical correlation among neighboring video frames to achieve good compression performance. In emerging applications like video surveillance, mobile multimedia, video conferencing, video gaming, and battlefield video communications, however, a simple, low-cost encoder with low computational complexity is instead desired. In an effort to reduce encoding computational complexity, one approach proposed recently is to apply the principle of Wyner-Ziv coding to shift the computational load from the encoder to the decoder.

Briefly speaking, in Wyner-Ziv coding, the decoder has access to side information that is not available to the encoder; and such side information can still be exploited to achieve greater compression than would otherwise be possible. Therefore, with the objective to achieve very low encoding complexity, Wyner-Ziv video coding systems exploit the statistical correlation among neighboring video frames only at the decoder, and thus relieve the encoder of significant computational load.

FIG. 2 shows a typical Wyner-Ziv video compression system. In general, a Wyner-Ziv video compression system consists of a video encoder 235 which compresses (or encodes) a video signal 205 into a compressed video frame 255, and a video decoder 245 which decompresses (or decodes) the compressed video frame 255 to produce reconstructed video frame 275. At any time instant, a video frame V 205 is to be encoded by the encoder 235. Since the decoder 245 has access to the previously decoded frame 285, it can generate prior knowledge 290 about V 205 from the previously decoded frame 285, and use this knowledge in the decoding process 250. Being aware of the existence of the prior knowledge 290 about V 205 at the decoder 245, the encoder 235 can transmit fewer bits, and thus achieve greater compression, than would otherwise be possible.

A brief description of the typical encoding process is as follows. The encoder first compresses V 205 conventionally by using a discrete cosine transform (DCT) 210, and quantization 220 (equivalent to the intra mode transform and quantization in MPEG coding). The resultant signal x 225 is called the quantized sequence, and takes value in a discrete set.

Previous methods for encoding 230 the quantized sequence x 225 have been described by Pradhan and Ramchandran, Distributed source coding using syndromes (DISCUS): design and construction, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 2003, Aaron and Girod, Wyner-Ziv video coding with low-encoder complexity, Proc. Picture Coding Symposium, PCS 2004, San Francisco, Calif., 2004, Xu and Xiong, Layered Wyner-Ziv video coding, Proc. VCIP'04: Special Session on Multimedia Technologies for Embedded Systems, San Jose, Calif., 2004, Sehgal, Jagmohan, and Ahuja, A state-free video encoding paradigm, Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Image Processing, 2003, and, Puri and Ramchandran, PRISM: A new robust video coding architecture based on distributed compression principles, Proc. of 40th Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Allerton, Ill., 2002.

The general process of encoding 230 the quantized sequence x 225 adopted in these methods is shown in FIG. 3. More specifically, in these methods, the signal x 225 is first binarized 310 into a set of binary streams 315. Correspondingly, the statistical model 240 representing the statistical relationship between x 225 (at the encoder 235) and y 295 (at the decoder 245) is decomposed 350 into a set of binary models 355, each of which corresponds to a binary stream 315 obtained from x 225. From each binary model 355, a binary code (e.g. 320, 330, . . . 360) is then generated, and used to encode the corresponding binary stream 315.

The chief drawback of these methods is that the binarization 310 of x 225 and the decomposition 350 of the statistical model 240 add computational complexity to encoding, and complicate the code generation process. The additional encoding computational complexity is particularly undesirable as the main objective of Wyner-Ziv video compression systems is to reduce encoding complexity.

Note that although the side information y 295 is not assumed on the encoder side, the encoder 235 needs to know the statistical relationship between x 225 and y 295 as reflected in the statistical model 240 in order to encode x 225. For the purpose of reducing encoding complexity, the statistical model should be estimated by using computationally efficient methods in Wyner-Ziv video compression systems. The description of such methods, however, is not relevant to the present invention. Hence, we shall simply assume that the statistical model 240 is known at the encoder 235 and at the decoder 245.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is therefore directed to a method for encoding the quantized sequence x directly.

Another object of the invention is to effectively eliminate the need for binarizing x and decomposing the statistical model.

A further object of the invention is to further reduce the encoding complexity in the overall Wyner-Ziv video compression systems.

The present invention is directed to a computer-based method for encoding and decoding quantized sequences in Wyner-Ziv coding of video transmissions. The method estimates a minimum field size from a given statistical model of a relationship between a quantized sequence of a current video frame and side information obtained from previous video frames decoded from previously encoded quantized sequences. Using the statistical model, the method encodes a quantized sequence x into a syndrome sequence z and decodes the quantized sequence x from syndrome sequence z and the side information. The encoding is done without access to the side information, and both the encoding and the decoding portions of the method are each able to separately construct a statistical model that is the same as the given statistical model.

On the encoding side, the method takes as input to an encoder a sequence x of quantized data from a finite alphabet and a statistical model about x. A minimum field size M is estimated from the statistical model. According to the statistical model, a bi-partite graph G is constructed, having variable nodes and check nodes, in which the alphabet A of each check node is a finite field of size M. In response to the quantized sequence x fed into the variable nodes of G, the method generates a sequence z from alphabet A at the check nodes of G. The sequence z is termed the syndrome of x in G. This syndrome sequence z is the output of the encoder to be transmitted. Since the length of z is often smaller than that of x, compression is achieved.

On the decoding side of the present invention, the method takes as input to a decoder a syndrome sequence z received in transmission, a sequence y of quantized data from the previously decoded video frames, and a statistical model representing the statistical relationship between y and the sequence x to be decoded. A minimum field size M is estimated from the statistical model. According to the statistical model, a bi-partite graph G is constructed, having variable nodes and check nodes, in which the alphabet A of each variable node and each check node is a finite field of size M. Taking the sequence y as the initial input to the variable nodes of G, the method uses an iterative process to decode the sequence x as a sequence from alphabet A whose syndrome sequence is z in G. If no such sequence is found within a prescribed threshold number of iterations, the method declares a decoding failure. In one aspect of the invention, the iterative process uses the statistical model to successively modify the input to the variable nodes of G, up to the prescribed threshold number of iterations, until the sequence output at the check nodes is equal to the syndrome sequence z. When the output at the check nodes is equal to the syndrome sequence z, then the iterated input sequence at the variable nodes is taken to be the reconstructed quantized sequence. In another aspect of the invention successive iterations to the input to the variable nodes are determined by the belief propagation method generalized to a finite field of size M.

The sequence x above is the quantized output 225 in a Wyner-Ziv video coding system as shown in FIG. 2. The sequence y above is the side information sequence 295 reconstructed at the decoder in a Wyner-Ziv video coding system as shown in FIG. 2.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a bipartite graph as used in the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a typical Wyner-Ziv coding system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a conventional method of encoding quantized sequence x involving binarization, decomposition of a statistical model, and a series of binary codes.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the improved method of encoding quantized sequence x in a Wyner-Ziv coding system.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the improved method of decoding quantized sequence x in a Wyner-Ziv coding system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The encoding side and decoding side of the method of the present invention are shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, respectively.

In contrast to prior art encoding as illustrated in FIG. 3, the improved encoding of the present invention as shown in FIG. 4 first estimates 410 a field size M from the statistical model 240, then generates an M-ary code 420 from the same statistical model 240 to encode the quantized sequence x directly into a binary sequence z 425.

To illustrate the encoding process, let us look at FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows an example of a bipartite graph where on the left hand side of an edge (e.g. items 131 and 132) is a variable node (circle-shaped), and on the right hand side of an edge is a check node (square-shaped). Each variable node carries a value, for example, v_(i) for the i^(th) variable node (counted from top to bottom, items 111 to 118), where i denotes an integer between 1 and 8. Similarly, each check node carries a value, for example, c_(j) for the j^(th) check node (counted from top to bottom, items 121 to 124), where j denotes an integer between 1 and 4. An edge in a bipartite graph may also carry a value, for example, a_(ij) for the edge connecting the i^(th) variable node and the j^(th) check node. For example, edge a₁₁ 131 represents the value associated with the component of v₁ in c₁, and edge a₈₄ 132 represents the value associated with the component of v₈ in c₄.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, each c_(i) is related to a subset of {v₁, v₂, . . . , v₈} through a linear equation (e.g. 141 to 144) defined over a finite field A. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, c ₁ =a ₁₁ v ₁ +a ₂₁ v ₂ +a ₄₁ v ₄ +a ₅₁ v ₅ +a ₇₁ v ₇ +a ₈₁ v ₈. To see how c₁ is calculated, let us suppose that v₁=6, v₂=3, v₄=5, v₅=10, v₇=1 and v₈=0, and that a_(ij)=1 for all (i, j) pairs appearing in the above equation. Suppose also that the finite field A is GF(4) consisting of 4 elements 0, 1, 2, and 3. To perform the arithmetic in GF(4), we need to first map the integer set from which v₁v₂ . . . v₈ is drawn to A (equivalently, GF(4)). A common mapping method is to use modular arithmetic. Hence, v₁=2 (mod 4), v₂=3 (mod 4), v₄=1 (mod 4), v₅=2 (mod 4), v₇=1 (mod 4), and v₈=0 (mod 4). Then according to finite field arithmetic defined over GF(4), c ₁=(2+3)+(1+2)+(1+0)=1+3+1=3. Note that GF(4) arithmetic field operations (addition ‘+’ and multiplication ‘*’) are defined by the following two tables.

+ 0 1 2 3 0 0 1 2 3 1 1 0 3 2 2 2 3 0 1 3 3 2 1 0

* 0 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 3 2 0 2 3 1 3 0 3 1 2

If the field size of A is M, we say the bipartite graph describes an M-ary (linear) code. In response to a length 8 sequence v₁v₂ . . . v₈ input to the variable nodes, the M-ary code given by the bipartite graph in FIG. 1 encodes the sequence into a length 4 sequence c₁c₂c₃c₄ output by the check nodes. The sequence c₁c₂c₃c₄ is termed the syndrome sequence of v₁v₂ . . . v₈.

Suppose that each symbol in the field A is represented by log(M) bits, where “log” denotes the logarithm function to base 2 throughout this document. Since m is generally much smaller than n, compression is achieved. The resulting compression rate in bits per symbol is (m log(M))/n. In practice, the encoder 420 selects m and N according to the length of the input sequence x and the expected compression rate estimated from the statistical model 240. The estimation is performed for each frame to be encoded. Note that once M is chosen, the encoder 420 knows how to choose m to achieve the desired compression rate.

A video sequence 205 typically consists of integer numbers (ranging, say, from 0 to 255″). After DCT transform 210 and quantization 220, quantized sequence x 225 is another sequence of integer numbers (typically with a larger range). This sequence is encoded by using the above described method. Say, for example, a number 13 is to be encoded and the field size is 4. We can use modulo 4 operation to convert 13 into 1. The M-ary encoding operations 420 are then performed arithmetically in finite field GF(4) to produce syndrome sequence z 425. Compression is achieved since the number of bits used to represent the syndrome sequence z is often much less than the number bits used to represent the input quantized sequence.

In this invention, the field size N to be used to generate an M-ary code is estimated from the statistical model 240. Specifically, suppose that the alphabet of the quantized sequence x is an integer set. The estimation process seeks a subset of M integers such that the probability (determined by the statistical model 240) of x containing symbols outside the size M subset is smaller than a prescribed threshold. To facilitate computation in different computing platforms, one may also want to constrain the selection of M to satisfy certain properties, for example, being an integral power of two.

On the decoder 430 side, the improved method shown in FIG. 5 generates an M-ary code given by a bipartite graph from the statistical model 240, and then uses the same M-ary code to decode 430 quantized sequence x 435 from the sequences z 425 and y 295, the latter of which is generated for input to the decoder 430 from the previously decoded frames, for example, in the same manner as in the prior art shown in FIG. 2.

Note that, in principle, the encoder 420 and decoder 430 may be distant from one another. By matching the learning method and the data used to learn the model, we can make sure that the encoder 420 and the decoder 430 are using the same statistical model 240 and, thus, generate the same bi-partite graph. Assuming a given statistical relationship, there are various ways to learn the relationship in practice. One such way is to use a portion of the video frames for the learning.

In general, an M-ary code described by a bipartite graph with n variable nodes and m check nodes can be used to encode any sequence of length n into its syndrome sequence of length m. The value of n is given by the input sequence x, whereas m is determined from the statistical model 240. For any pair (n,m), the encoder 420 and the decoder 430 generate the same bi-partite graph (hence, the same code) from the statistical model 240.

The decoding rule can be either the MAP (maximum a posteriori) decoding rule or its approximations. By using the MAP decoding rule, the decoder tries to find the most probable sequence given y (that is, most probable according to the statistical model 240) whose syndrome sequence is equal to z in the generated bipartite graph.

Enforcing the MAP decoding rule is computationally expensive. An alternative is to approximate the MAP decoding rule by using an iterative decoding process. The process can be described as follows. Let G denote the bipartite graph describing the M-ary code 420 generated from the statistical model 240.

Step 1: Initialize a counter k as 1. Let v^((k)) denote the sequence in the variable nodes of G at the k^(th) iteration. Initialize v⁽¹⁾ as y.

Step 2: Calculate the syndrome sequence of v^((k)) in G. If the syndrome sequence is equal to z, the process terminates; otherwise, the decoder finds a new sequence v^((k+1)) according to the statistical model and G. One possible method in determining the new sequence v^((k+1)) is the well-known belief propagation method generalized to a finite field of size M.

Step 3: Increase the counter k by one. If k is greater than a prescribed threshold, the process terminates; otherwise, go to Step 2.

At the end of the above iterative process, the decoder outputs x as v^((k)). Note that if the above iterative process terminates with a sequence v^((k)) whose syndrome sequence is NOT z in G, the decoder detects a decoding failure.

It should be noted that use of the bi-partite graph provides a computationally effective methodology for iterative decoding, and is therefore the best mode of implementing the invention. However, in principle, the invention is also operable for any M-ary linear code H, where H is an m by n matrix from a finite field with M elements and where the encoder calculates z=Hx.

While the invention has been described in terms of a single preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for encoding and decoding quantized sequences in Wyner-Ziv encoded video transmissions, comprising: estimating a minimum field size from a given statistical model of a relationship between a quantized sequence of a current video frame and side information obtained from previous video frames decoded from previously encoded quantized sequences; and using the statistical model to encode a quantized sequence x into a syndrome sequence z and decode the quantized sequence x from syndrome sequence z and said side information, said encoding not having access to said side information, and said encoding and said decoding each being able to separately construct a statistical model that is the same as said given statistical model.
 2. A method as in claim 1, wherein encoding a quantized sequence x further comprises: constructing from the statistical model a bi-partite graph G of variable nodes and check nodes in which an alphabet A of each check node is a field of said minimum field size; and encoding the quantized sequence into a syndrome sequence z using said bi-partite graph by feeding the quantized sequence into the variable nodes and taking the syndrome sequence z from the check nodes as output.
 3. A method as in claim 1, wherein decoding syndrome sequence z further comprises: constructing from the statistical model a bi-partite graph G of variable nodes and check nodes in which an alphabet A of each check node is a field of said minimum field size; and decoding the syndrome sequence z using the bi-partite graph G and side information y obtained from previously decoded video frames.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein decoding the syndrome sequence z to reconstruct the quantized sequence further comprises: feeding the side information y into said variable nodes; and using an iterative process to obtain from y an iterated sequence at said variable nodes whose output at said check nodes is equal to said syndrome sequence, the iterated sequence being the reconstructed quantized sequence.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the iterative process is a maximum a posteriori (MAP) rule or its simplified approximations.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the iterative process comprises the steps of: initializing v^((k)) as the prior decoded quantized sequence y for k=1; calculating a syndrome sequence z′ of v^((k)) in G; if the syndrome sequence z′ is equal to the syndrome sequence z, then set v^((k)) as the decoded quantized sequence x and terminate the iterative process; if the syndrome sequence z′ is not equal to the syndrome sequence z, and if k is less than a prescribed threshold, then generate a new v^((k)) for k=k+1 and return to the calculating step; if k is greater than or equal to a prescribed iteration threshold, then terminate the iterative process as failed.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein a new v^((k)) for k=k+1 is determined according to the statistical model and G.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein a new v^((k)) for k=k+1 is determined by a belief propagation method generalized to a finite field of size M.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein field size M is estimated by determining a subset of an alphabet for the quantized sequence such that a probability, according to the statistical model, of the quantized sequence containing a symbol outside the subset is smaller than a prescribed threshold.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the prescribed probability threshold is the same whether estimation of field size M is done by the encoder or the decoder.
 11. A system for encoding and decoding quantized sequences in Wyner-Ziv encoded video transmissions, comprising: means for estimating a minimum field size from a given statistical model of a relationship between a quantized sequence of a current video frame and side information obtained from previous video frames decoded from previously encoded quantized sequences; and means for using the statistical model to encode a quantized sequence x into a syndrome sequence z and decode the quantized sequence x from syndrome sequence z and said side information, said encoding not having access to said side information, and said encoding and said decoding each being able to separately construct a statistical model that is the same as said given statistical model.
 12. A system as in claim 11, wherein encoding a quantized sequence x further comprises: means for constructing from the statistical model a bi-partite graph G of variable nodes and check nodes in which an alphabet A of each check node is a field of said minimum field size; and means for encoding the quantized sequence into a syndrome sequence z using said bi-partite graph by feeding the quantized sequence into the variable nodes and taking the syndrome sequence z from the check nodes as output.
 13. A system as in claim 11, wherein decoding syndrome sequence z further comprises: means for constructing from the statistical model a bi-partite graph G of variable nodes and check nodes in which an alphabet A of each check node is a field of said minimum field size; and means for decoding the syndrome sequence z using the bi-partite graph G and side information y obtained from previously decoded video frames.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the means for decoding the syndrome sequence z to reconstruct the quantized sequence further comprises: means for feeding the side information y into said variable nodes; and means for using an iterative process to obtain from y an iterated sequence at said variable nodes whose output at said check nodes is equal to said syndrome sequence, the iterated sequence being the reconstructed quantized sequence.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the means for using an iterative process use a maximum a posteriori (MAP) rule or its simplified approximations.
 16. The system of claim 14, wherein the means for using an iterative process further comprise: means for initializing v^((k)) as the prior decoded quantized sequence y for k=1; means for calculating a syndrome sequence z′ of v^((k)) in G; wherein, if the syndrome sequence z′ is equal to the syndrome sequence z, then v^((k)) is set as the decoded quantized sequence x and the iterative process is terminated; if the syndrome sequence z′ is not equal to the syndrome sequence z, and if k is less than a prescribed threshold, then a new v^((k)) is generated for k=k+1 and said calculating means is reused; if k is greater than or equal to a prescribed iteration threshold, then the iterative process is terminated as failed.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein a new v^((k)) for k=k+1 is determined according to the statistical model and G.
 18. The system of claim 16, wherein a new v^((k)) for k=k+1 is determined by a belief propagation method generalized to a finite field of size M.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein field size M is estimated by determining a subset of an alphabet for the quantized sequence such that a probability, according to the statistical model, of the quantized sequence containing a symbol outside the subset is smaller than a prescribed threshold.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the prescribed probability threshold is the same whether estimation of field size M is done by the encoder or the decoder. 